


Hour of the Wolf

by orphan_account



Category: Batman and Robin (Comics), DCU (Comics)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-05
Updated: 2015-04-05
Packaged: 2018-03-21 10:49:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 607
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3689439
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's 3:22 in the morning and Batman is stuck in her bedroom window.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hour of the Wolf

It's 3:22 in the morning and Batman is stuck in her bedroom window.  
  
“Would you like some help?” Barbara asks after listening to the gripping struggle of man and ledge for a good two minutes, not looking up from her laptop.  
  
“No no, don't get up, I just caught the goddamn cape on—”  
  
There's a pronounced _thump_ followed by a _bang_ , and then a very small, very pathetic “ _ow_.”  
  
Barbara peers over the top of her glasses and takes in the sad bundle of Batman-and-Robin at the foot of her bed. Batman is muttering completely un-Batman-like obscenities under his breath, hopelessly tangled in his cape. Robin appears to be unconscious.  
  
“Is he okay?”  
  
“He's fine. More or less. Got the flu or something, he's been self-medicating for days to keep me in the dark on that particular tidbit. Obviously that worked out as well as you'd expect a scheme concocted by a feverish ten-year-old to work. Which is to say, we wrecked a bike. And my knee. _Again_. And I really didn't feel like hiking home with a bum leg and Robin on my back, and we were in your neighborhood, aaand that brings us to now. Sorry, Babs, we'll be out of your luscious locks as soon as I get my shit together.”  
  
Barbara bites her lip and doesn't laugh, if only because Dick sounds more resigned than anything.  
  
“You guys should change, you know where your stuff is. Damian can take my bed. Can I get you anything?”  
  
“A new life?”  
  
“Anything within the realm of possibility?”  
  
“A hug?”  
  
“As soon as you get that filthy suit off. You smell like the sewers.”  
  
“ _Please_ don't ask.”  
  
“Noted.”  
  
Barbara saves her work and gets into her chair while Dick is in the bathroom, and together they manage to wrangle Damian out of his clothes and into a pair of Barbara's shorts along with a violently magenta t-shirt she never wears because it clashes horribly with her everything.  
  
“He's such a pretty little boy when he's not making that face.”  
  
“I think that's precisely _why_ he makes that face.”  
  
“He's going to kill us both when he wakes up and takes a look at himself,” Barbara points out, to which Dick shrugs.  
  
“He should be grateful I'm too beat to come up with a better punishment. Jesus, Babs, what am I _doing_?”  
  
“I think it's time for that hug, sweetheart.”  
  
Dick practically faceplants into her lap before the words are even out of her mouth. Barbara combs her fingers through his sweat-stiff hair, strokes her thumb along the too-tense muscles of his neck. Sitting on the floor all folded-up like that must be hell on his back and knee, but Dick doesn't move apart from rubbing his face into her belly, like he's trying to burrow into her very skin. She half expects him to start purring like a cat any second.  
  
They stay like that for what feels like a long time, watching Damian sleep.  
  
“Your best.”  
  
“Hm?” Dick inquires drowsily.  
  
“You're doing your best. That's all anyone can ask of you.”  
  
“That sounds so nice. Pity we both know it's a load of crap.”  
  
“Okay, how about this: I _love_ you, you dumbass. _Damian_ loves you. You're doing _fine_. Do you know anyone more qualified to judge that than me?”  
  
“No, ma'am. You know best.”  
  
“ _Good_. Now go get some sleep on the couch, you look terrible.”  
  
Dick props his chin on her knee and grins up at her. It makes him look only slightly less like death warmed over.  
  
“I thought I was the pretty one in this relationship?”  
  
“Clearly, we are doomed.”


End file.
